As has been expected and rumoured for quite a while now, Hyundai finally announced its entrance into endurance racing today, with its FIA World Championship programme coming 'in the near future' — widely expected to be 2026.
The announcement was lacking in detail, with just three sentences. Here it is in full:
Genesis to enter endurance racing
The LMDh program will add a new pillar to Hyundai Motorsport's portfolio.
Since its establishment in 2012, Hyundai Motorsport has been competing in WRC and TCR with Hyundai N brand.
Genesis, the premium brand of the Hyundai Motor Group will add endurance racing to the disciplines of its motorsport activities.
A concurrent announcement was made by WEC, announcing the specific WEC programme:
Hyundai’s luxury brand Genesis has today made official its intention to join endurance racing in the near future.
Potential FIA World Endurance Championship entry remains subject to WEC Selection Committee approval.
First things first: the programme will be branded 'Genesis'. This name probably isn't familiar to many, but that's most likely why Hyundai has chosen to brand it this way: to increase brand awareness and grow it globally.
Secondly, the expected IMSA Sportscar Championship programme wasn't included in Hyundai's announcement. The two programmes, in IMSA and WEC, are expected to run simultaneously, although probably with different partner teams in Europe and the United States.
Hyundai is known to be tapping up European sportscar teams, including TDS Racing, IDEC Sport, and COOL Racing, plus Chip Ganassi Racing in the US for the IMSA programme.
LMDh
It's been rumoured for a while that Hyundai would take the cheaper, easier option for entering modern sportscar racing, aligning with the LMDh ruleset.
This, of course, means basing the car on an existing next-gen LMP2 chassis. While it wasn't included in the announcement, the Korean company has almost certainly chosen Oreca to be its chassis partner, with the French company designing and building the car.
This would make Oreca the first LMDh chassis partner to have three manufacturers running the next-gen Oreca LMP2 platform, after Acura and Alpine. Dallara currently also has two, BMW and Cadillac; while Multimatic has one, in Porsche, with Lamborghini using the Ligier base for its SC63.
Both the Acura ARX-06 and the Alpine A424 look very similar to each other, with pointy front noses, aero fins are connected to the front splitter, and air intakes mounted behind the cockpit on either sidepod.
The Alpine A424 and Acura ARX-06 look similar, thanks to their shared Oreca base. Images: Javier Jimenez DPPI (Alpine) and Jake Galstad, LAT / IMSA
LMDh cars that use the same chassis base don't have to look similar. Look at the BMW M Hybrid V8 and the Cadillac V-Series.R, both based on the Dallara platform. They are remarkably different to each other, yet share the same chassis underpinning.
However, despite their significant differences — rear aero, air intake, general bodywork — they do have their similarities too, especially towards the front, with the nose and splitter having the same general shape, although the BMW has its distinctive 'nostrils' which the Cadillac lacks.
As a reminder, while LMDh manufacturers are mandated to use a chassis from one of the approved partners, they have a lot of freedom in the design of the car itself.
They can still design the bodywork themselves, plus suspension underpinnings, engine fitment and choice of powertrain, and all that comes with building a bespoke prototype racecar.
It will be interesting to see how Hyundai styles its LMDh racecar. This is a much bigger undertaking compared to other racing programmes the manufacturer has had in the past, in the touring car and rally arenas.
We do have some potential styling clues, though. Hyundai's Vision Gran Turismo concept, officially titled Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo, was the company's vision of what a racecar could look like in 2025.
The company itself said:
This exciting machine offers a glimpse of what's in store for the next-generation of high-performance vehicles, and showcases the unique characteristics that represent what N performance is all about.
Equally, Genesis had its own Vision GT concept, the X Gran Racer VGT.
The design of these is, obviously, very different to what is possible within the WEC Hypercar / IMSA GTP regulations with the LMDh and LMH rulesets.
With most of the LMDh cars being fairly conventional by modern endurance/sportscar prototype standards, as they're based on pre-existing next-gen LMP2 chassis, it's not clear how 'wild' Hyundai could go with the design of its car.
Could it take a similar direction to Peugeot, for example, with the original iteration of the 9X8 being 'wingless', generating the majority of its downforce, especially at the rear, from the floor and underbody of the car, using ground effect and venturi tunnels?
Well, maybe. The LMDh technical regulations and LMH technical regulations are designed to be as similar as possible, there are differences between the two.
Most notably, an LMDh must conform to a more conventional design, due to how the car is based on an existing chassis that can and is, in the case of Oreca and Dallara, used by other manufacturers.
Looking at the LMDh technical regulations, article 3.4.2, on the free boxes that manufacturers are free to design bodywork in, indicates that the LMDh regs in this area are more restrictive than the LMH technical regs, which of course the Peugeot 9X8 was designed to.
See the image below, from the LMDh technical regulations, for the areas the LMDh manufacturers can design, with the regulations stating:
Upper bodywork geometry is free inside designated free box volumes provided that all criteria in Article 3 and sub-articles are respected, the geometry complies with the relevant driver cockpit access and visibility templates detailed in Article 13.
In contrast, the LMH technical regulations state, in article 3.4.2:
Other than respecting all the constraints in these technical regulations, the upper bodywork is free subject to approval by FIA/ACO technical department.
So, this would indicate Hyundai's design can maybe not be quite as extreme as seen in the Vision GT car or the Genesis VGT concept. That said, the styling cues, especially from the Genesis VGT, could definitely make its way from concept to reality.
For example, that 'V' shaped front grille and light strip at the front, stretching past the front wheels on the concept. Or the aerodynamic fins behind the front wheels.
Unfortunately, the rear wing isn't included in the LMDh free boxes area, so it seems unlikely the Genesis VGT's aggressive rear wing will make its way to the LMDh car.
Powertrain
The car's powertrain is another big question.
It seems likely the car will be turbocharged. Of the six competing LMDh-rules cars at the moment, all but one — the Cadillac — are turbocharged. Three — the Lamborghini, BMW, and Acura — are twin turbocharged.
As for V8 vs V6 — it's very hard to tell. Hyundai has numerous engines it could use but it may prefer to build a new bespoke engine. The Acura and Alpine are both V6-powered, while the Porsche, Lamborghini, BMW and Cadillac are V8-powered.
Speaking of, since Hyundai Motorsport, based in Alzenau, Germany, near Frankfurt, has built its own in-house engines for the TCR and rally programmes, it seems likely that whatever the Korean manufacturer decides in terms of powertrain, it will be built in-house there, with assistance presumably from Korea.
GT3?
Finally: a GT3 programme to run concurrently alongside the Hypercar/GTP entry has been rumoured as well.
No evidence of this was seen in the announcement from Hyundai today. That, of course, doesn't mean it's not happening — just that they're not ready to talk about it yet.
That said, for a brand and company which is still relatively young in motorsport, launching a new LMDh programme, possibly with cars running in both the US and globally in the world championship, plus a new GT3 programme... that seems ambitious.
Keep in mind that Hyundai Motorsport was only founded in 2012 and since then has run TCR and rally programmes in various championships. If it entered GT3 as well... this would likely mean one of the existing programmes would have to be culled.
Plus, Hyundai has no car ready to compete in GT3 as it stands. The GT3 regulations state that a car competing in the class must be 2 door only, not 4 door. Hyundai, or Genesis, has no 2-door road cars currently on the market.
While a Hyundai/Genesis GT3 programme was being worked on in Australia in 2012, nothing seems to have come of this since. Dailysportscar has since reported the project failed as it had no direct input or involvement from Hyundai itself.
So, I wouldn't bet on a GT3 programme joining the LMDh car in endurance or sportscar racing in 2026. Further down the line? That's anyone's guess.
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